Middletown sends crows packing

Saturday

Jan 26, 2013 at 2:00 AM

MIDDLETOWN — The crows that flock to Middletown's warmth and food every year when the weather gets cold have been less troublesome than they have been in some past years, and they've mostly stayed out of downtown.

BY NATHAN BROWN

MIDDLETOWN — The crows that flock to Middletown's warmth and food every year when the weather gets cold have been less troublesome than they have been in some past years, and they've mostly stayed out of downtown.

"We think we've got them beat, in the downtown anyway," said John Degnan, head of Middletown's Business Improvement District, and the city's resident crow expert.

For years, the BID has been using Bird Gard amplifiers — which play calls like a crow in distress, or those of predator birds — to ward the corvids off. This year, they set up seven around downtown, which seems to have worked, Degnan said.

Crows have been an issue in Middletown for years. The birds usually come to downtown in October and relocate to the city's sewage treatment plant in December. But they seem to have liked last year's mild winter — hanging around downtown into February, splattering the pavement white with their droppings. This year, though, the city hasn't had to steam-clean a single sidewalk because of crows, Public Works Commissioner Jacob Tawil said.

Tawil said the city got some complaints this winter about crows in the areas near Lafayette Street and SUNY Orange; the BID set up one of its amplifiers at the college to help keep them away.

"It's not like they've disappeared," Tawil said.

"Normally, we get complaints from neighborhoods being inundated," Degnan said. "Now, they're sporadic."

Degnan said he has seen crows heading to the area around the high school and the Orange County Fairgrounds around sunset. However, they haven't led to any problems for the school grounds or the nearby neighborhoods, district Superintendent Ken Eastwood and Wallkill Supervisor Dan Depew said. Eastwood said the crows have been roosting in trees north of the building, and haven't come to the school itself.

"The crows in the Town of Wallkill have not been a real impact," Depew said.